DISCLAIMER: I AM A BIG ANIMAL NERD AND THIS WAS A BIT HARD FOR ME. I love bugs. I love birds. I love reptiles. I love amphibians. I love all manner of living thing. But I have a strong bias towards marine and coastal creatures, both living and extinct. I have picked all of the animals I would say I could talk about for at least an hour each.
1 - Orcinus Orca / Killer Whale
ALL ECOTYPES, but I especially am fond of Bigg's and the Southern Residents. My favourite animal of all time. Seriously they're the fucking coolest. They're like wolves but in the sea. They're black and white and they look like executioners and they totally can be. Their dorsal fins are like great huge onyx great swords that cut the waves. Their eye spot is super intimidating and gives them this sleek, almost car-like look.
They have no predators. They are in every ocean. They have language, culture, intimate familial bonds, and they are enormous and beautiful. They are also matriarchal and the grand/mothers will pass on knowledge to the rest of their pod.
I could go on and on and on about various individual orcas and ecotypes and stories about them. I'm a huge fan of them! I do a lot of casual research about them. In the Salish Sea where I live, there are no orca around here without ID. We know each and every one. I try to memorize as many of them as I can! They're our neighbours.
My favourite individual is Ocean Sun (L25), But - Here is a sick ass picture of Stanley (T123A) from the Center for Whale Research. Isn't he handsome and cool?
2 - Physeter Macrocephalus / Sperm Whale
I wish people got more hyped about sperm whales. They are so cool. You gotta think about their terrestrial ancestors to fully appreciate how cool they are I think.
All life on land came from the ocean, right. We evolved lungs, a one way ticket out of the ocean, ensuring we could never return to it in the same way. We can't just get our gills back. That's not really possible.
Enter the whale. Their ancestors decided they wanted to go back, so they did. This is impressive enough as it is, with whales evolving over the course of what amounts to a lunch break from the perspective of Earth's history, but then sperm whales take it a step further.
They dive deeper than any other air breathing animal on the planet. They collapse their own lungs to close off all air pockets. They heavily oxygenate their blood so that they can stay down there for up to TWO HOURS SOMEHOW. Imagine holding your breath for the entire length of a movie.
Not to mention their huge brains and incredible acoustic capabilities. They are some of the most unique, beautiful, powerful, intelligent, and mysterious whales out there. They're a close second to the orca for me.
3 - Megaptera novaeangliae / Humpback Whale
Ok so I'm the whale guy and I really love whales if you can't tell. I love humpbacks a lot. I have a lot of art of them around my house. They're such graceful and beautiful creatures. They also happen to be one of the whale species I've had the privilege to see in person.
They're such intelligent and compassionate, oddly gentle creatures. It's amazing how tender and aware they appear to be. I wish I could be friends with one, but I would never encroach upon the privacy and boundaries of a wild animal like that.
In my dreams at least, I can pretend...
Here's a picture I got of a mommy and her baby!
4 - Sphyrna mokarran / Great Hammerhead Shark
You cannot deny the sheer cool factor of the cephalofoil and long fins of the Hammerhead. My favourite thing about them, besides their super cool face which acts like a metal detector for catching and pinning rays, is how they can swim at an angle to use their dorsal fin to create lift. They are such unique looking animals. I love many sharks but this one is my favourite because of how charasmatic and iconic it looks. Super cool fish imho
They also look like Kaiju.
5 - Larus Glaucescens / Glaucous-Winged Gull
I know this animal is very common and most people consider it to be a burdensome little bastard of a bird, but I am really fond of them. I think they're beautiful. I love watching them fly around. I'm actually quite jealous of them. It looks like they're having fun soaring on the wind with those big wings.
They're also quite smart and bold. I watch them mess with the crows a lot. I like to call them the White Mafia, with the crows being the Black Mafia, because they're always having turf wars.
I love their crooning song. Hearing it in the mornings makes me feel happy. They're not all that bothered by people where I live as they are quite urbanized, so they don't tend to flee until you try to mess with them. I appreciate this because then I can admire them up close.
There are much cooler animals than seagulls, I know, but I have a particularily fond relationship to them and I like them. :)
It was really hard for me to pick just five animals because there are so many cool animals. I can't even really make a list to encompass the guys I love because I think it would span into the hundreds, if not thousands.
romaincrisis
prguitarman
jacobvanloon
germansingergirl
annaxmalina
